The question is…

How many lobster pots are there in New England?  They are EVERYWHERE.  Other places we have been where buoyed fishing gear was common had rules, either formal or informal, that fishing gear was not placed in marked channels.  Here in Massachusetts no such arrangement exists. Pots are as likely in the middle of shipping channels as anywhere else.  We can sail through the pots without worrying about catching them, but we have pretty much decided that we will not be doing ANY motoring at night when we could wrap a line around the propeller.

My first cod…

Today’s excitement was to get out fishing in some of the most productive fishing grounds in the world.  I picked a spot where a pile of rocks rose 100 feet above a gravel bottom at 200 feet.  In half a dozen drifts across  this very “fishy” looking feature, I caught a half dozen haddock, a 7 pound pollack, and a 10 pound cod.  Bouncing a pound of weight 100 feet under the boat, and pulling fish up from that depth left me pretty beat by the end of the day but our freezer is now full!

It was a perfect day for fishing.  There was enough wind to sail the 25 miles or so in the morning. As I approach my chosen spot the wind died to almost nothing making fishing easy.  Then just as I was ready to call it a day, the wind picked back up and we had a delightful sail back to Rockport.

Tonight we are back at anchor just outside the harbor of Rockport, Mass.  Tomorrow we will be in the harbor and taking a chance to explore a very picturesque place.